If the nanosats are released into this orbit tomorrow, there will be one less source of variation in the altitude when they pass ~5 km below the ISS in about a year. This should make them easier to avoid.

Cygnus should already trail the ISS by a couple thousand km.(~(24*60/90)*2*pi*5=180*pi km/day ~560 km/day )They raised the orbit within 52 hrs of the release but does anyone know precisely when?

« Last Edit: 11/25/2016 05:25 AM by Comga »

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What kind of wastrels would dump a perfectly good booster in the ocean after just one use?

It would make sense if NASA limited the pre-deployment orbit raising of Cygnus to just this 5 km.

According to the NSF article on the same day, Orbital ATK & NASA ceased joint operations of Cygnus after it departed the approach ellipsoid, so it doesn't look like it will be NASA's decision, but it will be interesting to see if Orbital ATK came to the same conclusion you did. The SFN article reported the orbit would be 100km above the station.

« Last Edit: 11/25/2016 09:37 PM by CyndyC »

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"Either lead, follow, or get out of the way." -- quote of debatable origin tweeted by Ted Turner and previously seen on his desk

The mission, which has been approved by NASA, is the first of its kind to deploy satellites into a higher orbit after departing from the ISS. The altitude boost provided by Cygnus to approximately 500km increases the on-orbit lifespan of the Spire’s LEMUR-2 satellites from about 9 months in a typical ISS deployment to at least 2 years. That amount of time is just inside a CubeSat “goldilocks” zone where their long-term usefulness and orbital life are in near-equilibrium.

Following the link in Olaf's post above leads to the Spire website. Spire now has the largest constellation of ship tracking satellites in the world. ISTM that gives them "expert opinion" status. They write: The altitude boost provided by Cygnus to approximately 500km increases the on-orbit lifespan of the Spire’s LEMUR-2 satellites from about 9 months in a typical ISS deployment to at least 2 years.